What’s Steven Hirsch’s Internet Value and Wage?
Steven Hirsch is an American businessman who has a internet price of $150 million. Steven Hirsch is a pioneering American grownup leisure govt and co-founder of Vivid Leisure, one of the vital outstanding and influential pornographic movie studios of the fashionable period. Identified for his polished enterprise type, savvy advertising and marketing instincts, and talent to merge grownup content material with mainstream celeb tradition, Hirsch helped reshape the porn business beginning within the Nineteen Eighties.
He’s broadly credited with introducing a “Hollywood studio” method to grownup movie manufacturing, emphasizing excessive manufacturing values, unique expertise contracts, and brand-driven distribution. Below his management, Vivid popularized the idea of the “Vivid Lady,” signed main licensing offers, and capitalized on the celeb intercourse tape phenomenon to dominate headlines and income charts.
Although he is lengthy been the general public face of Vivid, Hirsch shares possession with two longtime companions, and collectively they constructed a model synonymous with glamorized, commercially profitable grownup media. By Vivid, Hirsch grew to become a multimillionaire entrepreneur whose identify is as well-known as the celebrities he helped create.
Early Life
Steven Hirsch was born on Might 25, 1961, in Lyndhurst, Ohio. He was uncovered to the grownup movie enterprise early by means of his father Fred Hirsch, a former stockbroker who grew to become a distributor for Reuben Sturman, one of many greatest porn magnates of the twentieth century. In 1975, the Hirsch household moved to Los Angeles, the place Fred began Grownup Video Company. As a young person, Steven realized the ropes by working in his father’s duplication and gross sales enterprise, feeding VHS machines and making chilly calls to grownup video retailers. After transient stints at CSU Northridge and UCLA learning journalism and enterprise, he left school to pursue full-time work within the business, touchdown a job as a nationwide gross sales rep at CalVista, a serious grownup video distributor. It was there that he met David James, the person who would later turn into his enterprise companion.
Vivid Leisure
In 1984, Hirsch and James co-founded Vivid Leisure with round $38,000 in startup capital. Their first movie, “Ginger,” starring newcomer Ginger Lynn, grew to become a breakout hit, grossing roughly $700,000 and setting the tone for Vivid’s upscale, couple-friendly method to grownup filmmaking. Hirsch was decided to raise the manufacturing requirements and advertising and marketing of porn, modeling Vivid after Hollywood studios with shiny packaging, story-driven scripts, {and professional} branding. The corporate distinguished itself early on by signing unique contracts with high actresses, creating the now-famous “Vivid Women” roster. This technique led to a secure of high-profile stars and constant blockbuster gross sales all through the Nineteen Eighties, Nineteen Nineties, and 2000s.
By the early 2000s, Vivid was producing round $80 million in annual income. Hirsch expanded into softcore programming by means of licensing offers with Playboy, and in 2001, Vivid bought three of its cable channels to Playboy for $70 million. Hirsch additionally launched spinoff ventures like erotic comedian books, novels, and even a Sirius satellite tv for pc radio station. His efforts to place Vivid as a mainstream model led to better visibility in popular culture, together with billboards in Instances Sq. and common media protection. In 2012, he acquired the first-ever Visionary Award from Grownup Video Information for his contributions to the business.
Possession and Operations
Regardless of being the founder and CEO, Hirsch doesn’t personal Vivid outright. The corporate is co-owned by Hirsch, co-founder David James, and businessman Invoice Asher, who joined Vivid in 1999 and have become a co-chairman. All three males have managed the corporate in partnership, and whereas Hirsch stays the general public face and first decision-maker, he’s one in all three equal stakeholders within the enterprise.
In accordance with a 2002 LA Instances profile of Steven, in 2001, VIVID generated $80 million in income. That very same yr, Steven and his two companions acquired $70 million after promoting three tv networks to Playboy.

Evan Agostini/Getty Pictures
Private Life
Hirsch was beforehand married to Laurie Hirsch, a former business gross sales rep, they usually have two kids collectively. His sister, Marci Hirsch, has additionally labored at Vivid as a vp, additional cementing the household’s ongoing ties to the corporate. He has been identified for an extravagant life-style, sustaining a $300,000-per-year suite on the Staples Middle dubbed the “porn field.” Hirsch can be an avid collector of historic artifacts, together with a lock of George Washington’s hair and a demise masks of Abraham Lincoln.
Chatsworth Property
In 1999, Steven paid $1.56 million for a big property positioned in a gated neighborhood in Chatsworth, California. Set on 12.35 acres, the property options an 8,000-square-foot mansion, tennis court docket, theme-park-style pool, and far more. This property is probably going price round $10 million at this time
Notable Vivid Women
Hirsch’s technique of constructing a star system round contract actresses grew to become one in all Vivid’s strongest advertising and marketing instruments. Notable Vivid Women have included:
- Ginger Lynn – the unique Vivid Lady and the studio’s first breakout star
- Janine Lindemulder – Nineteen Nineties icon and tattooed pin-up legend
- Jenna Jameson – one of the vital recognizable porn stars of all time, who collaborated on a number of Vivid titles
- Tera Patrick – a top-selling performer in the course of the DVD growth
- Savanna Samson – a a number of AVN award-winner who crossed over into wine-making and media
- Sunny Leone – who later transitioned into Bollywood stardom after her run with Vivid
The Vivid Lady label grew to become a mark of status within the grownup business and helped cement Vivid’s popularity for working with elite performers.
Celeb Intercourse Tapes
Along with conventional grownup movies, Vivid grew to become synonymous with the celeb intercourse tape phenomenon. Hirsch oversaw the discharge of a number of the most infamous tapes in popular culture historical past, together with:
- “Kim Kardashian, Celebrity” – Kim’s 2007 launch grew to become one of many best-selling celeb intercourse tapes ever
- Kendra Wilkinson – whose personal tape was launched by Vivid in 2010
- Farrah Abraham – whose staged however broadly publicized tape “Backdoor Teen Mother” bought thousands and thousands of copies
- Chyna – the late WWE wrestler who starred in a number of Vivid productions
- Mindy McCready – whose specific residence video was launched beneath the title “Baseball Mistress”
Although many of those tapes had been accompanied by authorized disputes or public backlash, additionally they introduced large media consideration and income, making celeb content material a worthwhile area of interest for Vivid and a trademark of Hirsch’s advertising and marketing genius.
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